


You Are My Home

by CaptainShipper



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe-Nuclear Fallout, Angst with a Happy Ending, Billy Hargrove Being an Asshole, Fluff and Angst, Minor Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Parental Steve Harrington, Protective Mike Wheeler, Steve Harrington Has Bad Parents, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, Steve Harrington-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-01-27 01:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21384157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainShipper/pseuds/CaptainShipper
Summary: The nuclear fallout came sudden and much sooner than anyone had thought. Steve was born in this world more specifically Hawkins Indiana , it's the only one he's ever known. Three kids change that and he finds himself heading to D.C.
Relationships: Joyce Byers & Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Steve Harrington & The Party
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So the bombs fell years before Steve or anyone was born. I don't know everything about this fallout world I have created, I have an idea of where this story is going. Will, El and Mike will show up just a little later. Also tell me what you think this is my first story for this fandom.

  
  


The nuclear fallout came much sooner than any thought it would. While Hawkins Indiana didn’t get hit as other places did, the radiation was still bad. 

When Steve Harrington was born his parents couldn’t have been more upset. Having a baby in the wasteland was a mark for death. As soon as Steve had turned six, his parents claimed that they would be right back for him and they were heading to get resources, and it didn’t take him long to figure out what was really going on. With no one to take care of him, he learned how to survive on his own. How to fire a gun; even if he preferred his custom bat it was always good to know. How to cook the creatures of the waste and who to trust and who not to. He stopped caring that his parents left him eleven years ago, he was better off on his own anyways. 

Hawkins has become more of a trading town, shopkeepers didn’t get money, but whatever you had on you. Both people leave with something. In this case all Steve wanted was some food, he was heading to Washington DC to maybe find a better way to sustain himself. He couldn’t stay in Hawkins, especially when there has been news of a raider gang checking out the place going around. 

“Come on Mr. and Mrs. Holland this a fair trade, do you know how dangerous it is to go into the Hawkins lab? I could’ve died of radiation poisoning.” He just need enough to make it to the next trading town that’s all he needed. 

“You know what Harrington, get us a slave and we will give it to you.” A disgusted and shocked look came to the teen’s face at the request. 

“Is this because of Barb?” Their daughter had been killed a year before, Steve was there when it happened. He tried to help, he seriously did. The radiation has made some terrible creatures and neither of them knew about the bear. “A slave won’t replace her.” His voice was darker and serious. An anger like none before entered him and he couldn’t believe they were even thinking about it. 

“If you can’t deliver, the food is not yours.” 

“Fuck you! I would never.” Steve stormed off, away from their stand. When he bumped into a man, he had long blonde hair. 

“Well I heard you talking, I could get you a slave and make it worth your time pretty boy.” The guy winked at him and Steve wanted to vomit at the thought of it. 

“In your dreams.” Steve replied annoyed. Still, against his better judgement he looked to the slaves in cages. In one he saw three kids and felt his heart drop. A girl and two boys, the girl had fiery red and had a look of anger across her face. The boy closest to her was African american and was clearly trying to not seem afraid. The final boy had curly hair and had a worried look a mile long. He furrowed his eyebrows and moved closer. He kneeled down to look them in the eyes. 

“Hey! Back off asshole!” The girl yelled loudly. Despite her yells it was clear it was all bark and no bite, she was scared of him. 

“I just want to talk is all, I promise I won’t do anything.” He held up his hand to show there was nothing there. “How old are you guys?” 

“What do you get off on that you sick bastard!?” The girl bit back. 

“We’re thirteen.” The curly haired one spoke up.

“Dustin!” The other boy yelled. 

“What Lucas!? He clearly wants to help!” The girl in the middle shook her head in anger and disappointment.

“You idiots, you both said your names.” Well, that made knowing easier. 

“So you are interested pretty boy.” Steve stood to see the same guy as before. He noticed how the three moved away from him. 

“Like hell I am, you do realize that slavery isn’t allowed in Hawkins.” He brought up. 

“Names Billy and since they are already my products… it’s legal.” He smirked at the other. 

“They’re thirteen! I can’t believe this.” Steve stormed to, heading straight for the police station. 

“He’s right… there’s nothing we can do.” Powell simply said to him.

“You’re kidding me! There has to be something, they’re fucking thirteen.” 

“I’m sorry Steve, but it’s not like many people respect the law anyways.” The older man sighed and headed out of the station. Placing his hat on his head, he was gone. 

“Fine, then I'll do it myself.” Steve took out a bobby pin and headed to the filing cabinets.One of the few things his parents taught him before they left, he guessed it was the one thing he was thankful of them for. He opened four cabinets before finding what he was looking for. A small device used for slave collars. It’s universally used, and thus Steve began to form a plan. If he got caught, he would be in no better situation than those kids. 

Steve packed all the essentials he needed for a trip with three kids if this was successful. He had spent what was left of the day planning how to help those kids. 

The market was open at night, but many people went to bed. People either left their products out trusting others or put them into a storage with tight security. The teen walked in the dark parts of the alley’s that made up the market. He spotted Billy and some other guy.

“Tommy you better fucking watch these cages while i’m gone.” The blonde adjusted his leather jacket and went off to the bar nearby. The other guy, Tommy, looked around Steve’s own age much like Billy. He rolled his eyes and sat in a nearby chair. Slumping down and shutting his eyes, crossing his arms over his stomach. 

“Pssh, like anyone is gonna steal from him…” Tommy mumbled quietly. Steve quietly moved past him to the cage with the three kids, they stood out compared to everyone else. The three looked shocked to see him, the redhead looked ready to yell at him. He quickly put a finger to his lips and lifted up the device to unlock collars. 

“Use this quickly and quietly. I’m going to lock pick this cage open.” He whispered and stuck the device between the bars of the cage. The three quickly worked on their collars while Steve opened the door. 

The four quietly got out of the marketplace and took off running as soon as they were out. Steve’s heart was still going a million miles per hour while the three close behind him cheered and smiled.

“Hell yeah! You’re awesome!” The curly haired boy said happily. 

“Yeah, seriously dude thank you.” The girl said, a smile forming on her face. 

“Don’t thank me just yet, we need to get out of Hawkins. Not to mention get you guys out of those clothes.” Steve mentioned as they ran as fast as their legs could carry them. He wasn’t going to stop until they were out of Hawkins, he didn’t know when Billy would notice that these three were gone. 

Steve thanked quietly that Hawkins was a small town as they reached the old rusted over sign that was now just a reminder of a time long gone. The teen stopped breathing heavily as the kids met up with him. 

“We have to keep running for a little longer, until we reach a gas station or house. We’re still not far enough, can you do it?” The three nodded with determined looks. The teen nodded at them and they began to run again. Hoping to find a building soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and the kids find a place to stay for the night. Billy finds out that something is missing.

“This should work.” Steve came to a stop upon seeing a gas station. The three stopped next to him, breathing even harder then. “You three stay here, I'm going to make sure it’s safe.” He grabbed his nail bat from his bag and slowly approached the building. He walked through the front immediately noticing the chaos inside. All the shelves were knocked over and rotted or old food littered the floor. He prepared himself and checked the back room to find nothing besides a computer and a clock that no longer worked. Like every other clock pre bombs now that Steve thought of it. 

“Is it safe?” He heard a voice call into the store. 

“Yeah, come on in.” The three stood uncomfortably. “Okay first things first, I brought you guys some clothes to change into, you pick.” He opened his backpack and took out a pile of clothes. Handing it to them. The girl went into the bathroom while the boys went into the back room. Steve began to make beds out of the stuff in the store when the redhead came out from the bathroom. She had a striped shirt on with a light blue jacket on top with jeans and sneakers. The teen sent her a reassuring smile, she quietly moved and sat next to him. 

“You helped us and you don’t even know our names, why?” She looked confused and almost scared. 

“Well to be fair you don’t know mine either, I’m Steve.” 

“Max and the other two dipshits are Dustin and Lucas.” She reminded the teen, he has been trying to remember for a while now. Suddenly, the back room door burst open and the first thing they both noticed was the hat on Dustin’s head. To be honest, he didn’t know why he packed that. 

“What’s this for?” Lucas held out a red cloth with white patterns on it. It must’ve accidentally mixed with the clothes he gave them.

“It’s for areas that have radiation, it’s not the best. It’s helpful though.” He explained grabbing it gently. “I’m Steve by the way.” 

“Yeah, we heard you guys talking.” Lucas said, taking a seat next to Max. 

“Dude, do you have any food? I’m starving.” Dustin exclaimed. Both Lucas and Max gave him a look. Steve chuckled a little and went through his backpack. 

“Do you guys know how to start a fire?” The three looked at him like he was crazy. “Alright tonight we eat light, plus it’s probably better to not draw attention to us.” He chucked a bag of dried mutated fruits and nuts at the pre-teen. 

“I’m not really hungry.” Max said simply before laying down on the makeshift bed. Lucas laid next to her and nodded. 

After Dustin quickly finished off the bag he joined the other two. The three quickly falling asleep as Steve held his baseball bat close. He kept an eye out for Billy and anyone else who would come after these kids the whole night. His eyes watched the darkness for everything and anything. When his eyelids felt heavy as he fought to keep them open. 

When morning came, he shook the three awake. They of course complained that they were still tired and just a few more minutes.

“Unless you want Billy checking up with us, then please sleep.” Steve stood with his hands on his hips. They all seemed to jump at the idea of that. He threw his backpack on, the bat firmly in his hand. 

The teen and the kids were walking, trying to keep an even pace. 

“So… where are we going?” Dustin asked to fill the silence.

“D.C. there you guys can actually get your freedom.” Steve spoke not turning to look at them, determination filled his voice. 

“So Billy can’t take us back afterwards?” Max walked faster to meet up with Steve.

“Of course, I promise.” He said softly, his eyes softening as well.

“Thanks for this again.” Lucas finally spoke up.

“Seriously guys, you don’t have to thank me. It was the right thing to do and we aren’t out yet.” 

Billy was furious at Tommy.

“Are you fucking kidding me!? You had one fucking job.” The blonde yelled loudly. “I’m gonna check that nothing has been stolen.” He stomped to look at each cage. Some of his merchandise looked nervous and guilty, then he saw it. The cage with those brats was empty all that was left was their collars and the chain. The lock had been picked and he knew none of them knew how to do it. He stormed to the Holland’s booth. “As I’m new I wanted to know if there was someone here that is good at lock picking?” The couple thought for a moment.

“The only person I could think of is Steve Harrington, the boy about your age you were talking to yesterday.” Mrs.Holland answered and the anger built in the teen. 

“Good to know, thank you.” He turned and a frown overtook his features. He tossed a rifle to Tommy.

“We’re heading to D.C. to find MY merchandise. Maybe even have a new product. A pretty boy with long hair to be cut or tugged.” He was going to find Steve and those kids even if it was the last thing he did


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and the kids stumble what seems to be an empty town.

Steve felt uneasy the moment they walked into the abandoned town. Something wasn’t right and he could tell. 

“Stay close to me.” He whispered and then he walked cautiously through the town. He noticed the barbwire and large walls or cars that closed off the exits. 

“Steve..?” Lucas spoke lightly and quietly.

“We have to get out of here.” He took Dustin’s arm and began to run. Lucas and Max close behind them. 

“Well, well, looky what we got here boys and girls.” What looked to be the leader stepped in front of the teen and the kids. Steve puts a protective arm in front of the kids. 

“Steve!?” Max asked, completely afraid. 

“Hide now!” The teen grabbed out his baseball bat and hit an approaching raider across the face. He didn’t even see the kids run off, all that mattered was that they were safe. 

“You think you can take us kid? That’s hilarious! Get him boys!” The teen took the gun from the man he had killed and took cover behind a broken and rusted car. Beginning to take out the raiders one by one, then he ran out of ammo. 

“Son of bitch! You’re kidding me?” He groaned and set down the empty gun, picking up his trusted baseball bat. Getting shot as he lifted out of his cover, he quickly took out the rest. Thankfully it was a much smaller raider gang. “Max, Dustin, Lucas! You guys can come out- ow.” He began to try and stop the bleeding coming from his shoulder.

“Steve are you okay?” Dustin ran out to the teen. 

“Yeah… I’m okay, I just got shot.” 

“Excuse me just got shot!?” Lucas brought up. 

“Maybe I’m not exactly okay.” The teen let out a groan in pain. 

“Here, since I’m the only one who thought about this.” Max handed Steve a cloth to stop the blood. 

“Thanks, but are you guys okay?” He pressed the cloth absentmindedly against his shoulder.

“We are, for the most part.”

“We can’t stay here, look around for supplies quickly. There might be more of them coming.” The group quickly checked room after room. Looking for anything that could help them on their trip. 

“Hell yeah!” Everyone turned to Dustin after his shout. “It’s old but it’s a map of the United States.” Steve rushes over and looked at it.

“Good job dude.” The teen ruffled his hair with the hat on, and took the map. The younger couldn’t help the giant smile that came on his face. “Alright I think we should go, we’ve spent enough time here.” The four left through the only exit, hidden in the back of a broken apart building 

“So where to now?” Lucas asked, Steve had already placed the map inside his backpack. 

“If I remember correctly, there's a trading town up ahead, but the last time I left Hawkins I was five. So who knows what happened to it, raiders could’ve taken over.” He added. 

“We have a government right?” Everyone stopped and turned to Dustin. “So why aren’t they doing anything about this? Or the fact that no one really follows the law!” 

“That’s the thing, the government doesn’t care. Yeah, sometimes laws are enforced, but that’s in certain towns and in certain situations. Other than that they couldn’t give two shits.” Steve spoke bitterly. A sigh escaped the teen as he saw the kids look at him questioningly. “Let’s just keep going in the hopes that the town is still there.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been a minute. Sorry about that, I was just having a little trouble adding on. Hince, the short chapter. I'm hoping to really start this story up again


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long road can drive anyone crazy, it's good to have some music on hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to clarify some things about this story. For starters the bombs fell in the late 80s which is how they have that technology. This is about 100 years later, hence radiation not being a super major concern. While it is worse in some places like certain states for explain New York because it's so populated it would definitely be a impact site.

Walking down a long broken road could take a toll on anyone. For lack of better words the group was at each other’s throats. Dustin and Lucas were arguing non-stop, plus Max adding in her insults was not helping. 

“Alright! Enough!” Steve stopped walking and turned around to address the three. “You three are driving me crazy! For five minutes just stop it!” His anger softened when seeing their faces. He let out a soft sigh and rubbed his face. “I get it, it’s boring and we’ve been walking for  _ hours,  _ but you have to calm down. That or we go insane before we even make it to Ohio.” Steve explained softly. The three looked guilty, he stopped and placed his bag on the ground. He searched through his bag only finding what he was looking for at the bottom. A walkman he was pretty sure that’s what it was called, the paint was faded and it was hard to read. For a long time the device was his best friend, filling silent nights with some kind of noise. He pressed play and music filled their small area. He handed it to Dustin. “Listen to this. It’ll keep you sane, I might not have the best taste in music, but it’s all I got.” Finding mixtapes was like finding non-radiated water. Needless to say, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.

The group was actually quietly listening to the tunes, seeming very focused on it actually. It made the long hours seem to go by much faster, before any of them had known sunset was upon them. Luckily there was another gas station in a mile. The worst case Steve had to kill more raiders or slavers, best case it was empty of anything that would try to kill them. 

“You guys stay here, I’m gonna check out the place.” The teen simply said. 

“You know we could help out if you gave us some kind of weapon.” Max reasoned. 

“Yeah, no. One of you would probably shoot me with my luck. It’s better if you just stay out here outta the way.” He headed into the gas station, hearing what sounded like scurrying nails against the floor. Immediately grabbing his bat from his backpack. He heard what sounded like growling, when a mutant raccoon shot out from under a display. Stralling the teen, only for it to be knocked across the room like a ball. A loud smack as it hit the wall. 

“Steve is everything okay? We heard a yell.” Lucas called into the building. He had yelled?

“Yeah, it was just a raccoon. I’m gonna make sure it’s dead, you guys can come in.” The teen walked over to the body and poked it with his bat. Letting out a sigh of relief when it didn’t move. Chucking it’s body outside the gas station. 

The four were laying on the ground around a makeshift fire. 

“Hey Steve?” Dustin suddenly spoke up. 

“Hmm?”

“Where did you learn to do all this?” The kid asked. 

“Yeah, it was actually really cool how you took out those raiders.” Max added. 

“You say that like you're surprised!” Steve faked offense. Causing a light laugh between the group. “If you have to know, I taught myself. I made my bat myself actually.” 

“That’s really cool!” Dustin said, standing up yelling. Only to be shhed by everyone else. 

“Dustin.” Steve scolded lightly through his teeth. 

“Was it lonely?” Max’s voice suddenly came. The teen’s breath hitched quietly.

“I… no, no. I was fine. You get used to it.” The silence engulfed him. “L-let’s just get some rest, okay?” 

_ Steve curled in on himself lying on a dirty, old mattress. A storm raging outside, he flinched as a bright light flashed outside. He covered his ears waiting for the loud grumble of thunder. Still, hearing it slightly. He let out a small whimper, as it seemed to rumble the abandoned house. The small kid went to his bag and took out the small music player. Rubbing his fingers over the faded paint. He pressed the play button and laid the device close to his head. The boy laying back down, the music drowning some of the loud thunder. Though it still could be heard. Steve flinched again as light shone through the broken window. _


End file.
